A DISAPPEARING RACE—SCARECROW
After spending more than ten years of my life photographing all the scarecrows in farms in Taiwan, I have never asked myself why I started doing it. Many people have asked me this same question. If I must find an answer, I believe “recording” was the simple reason that motivated me to carry out the task. When I looked through the negatives of close to five hundred scarecrows taken at different locations and in different seasons, I noticed that it was becoming hard for me to find out where they are right now. Sometimes I was depressed and perplexed. But during this long interval of photographing them, I gradually came to realize that Taiwan’s farming communities have been undergoing many changes, and also the farmers’ hard work and sadness. Several times when I was in the countryside, I came across many old farmers who kindly pointed out where to find scarecrows hidden nearby, and who told me the effects of low price on rice that was a burden on them. Farming communities can’t hold back young people who are rushing to big cities or scarecrows that are getting less and less. The widespread use of pesticide and plastic bags and flags to scare off birds has spared the farmers the energy to produce scarecrows. Sometimes the farmers may have good harvests, but the price is so low that forces the farmers to stop planting for next year, or to quit farming all together. Furthermore are single detached houses that appear one after another in the fields that force the farmers to rethink about their jobs. Only those stubborn and lonely old farmers still produce scarecrows in the fields, but just to keep them company.
“A Disappearing Race” is my definition to these scarecrows, and that is also why I am so desperate to take all their photos before they disappear completely. I like to follow my childhood memory in examining the scarecrows through my camera, so photographing them also embraces some of my memory. It exhibits my deepest feeling I cherished in my childhood towards the scarecrows and the fields. For country children, scarecrows were part of their playmates and accompanied many country children through the green period of their lives.
I once thought that I would hold an exhibition for these farmers, so the general public will realize the scarecrows from these farmers’ thick and rough hands can be so cute and artistic. Therefore, I often photograph the scarecrows as art work. Each scarecrow is a piece of unique art work from the farmers.
I wasn’t thinking all about myself when I planned to hold an exhibition on scarecrows. I hoped people would see these adorable scarecrows that once existed on our land. With changes going on in our lives, I wonder what will happen to the scarecrows in Taiwan’s farming villages, or if they will disappear entirely.
After spending more than ten years of my life photographing all the scarecrows in farms in Taiwan, I have never asked myself why I started doing it. Many people have asked me this same question. If I must find an answer, I believe “recording” was the simple reason that motivated me to carry out the task. When I looked through the negatives of close to five hundred scarecrows taken at different locations and in different seasons, I noticed that it was becoming hard for me to find out where they are right now. Sometimes I was depressed and perplexed. But during this long interval of photographing them, I gradually came to realize that Taiwan’s farming communities have been undergoing many changes, and also the farmers’ hard work and sadness. Several times when I was in the countryside, I came across many old farmers who kindly pointed out where to find scarecrows hidden nearby, and who told me the effects of low price on rice that was a burden on them. Farming communities can’t hold back young people who are rushing to big cities or scarecrows that are getting less and less. The widespread use of pesticide and plastic bags and flags to scare off birds has spared the farmers the energy to produce scarecrows. Sometimes the farmers may have good harvests, but the price is so low that forces the farmers to stop planting for next year, or to quit farming all together. Furthermore are single detached houses that appear one after another in the fields that force the farmers to rethink about their jobs. Only those stubborn and lonely old farmers still produce scarecrows in the fields, but just to keep them company.
“A Disappearing Race” is my definition to these scarecrows, and that is also why I am so desperate to take all their photos before they disappear completely. I like to follow my childhood memory in examining the scarecrows through my camera, so photographing them also embraces some of my memory. It exhibits my deepest feeling I cherished in my childhood towards the scarecrows and the fields. For country children, scarecrows were part of their playmates and accompanied many country children through the green period of their lives.
I once thought that I would hold an exhibition for these farmers, so the general public will realize the scarecrows from these farmers’ thick and rough hands can be so cute and artistic. Therefore, I often photograph the scarecrows as art work. Each scarecrow is a piece of unique art work from the farmers.
I wasn’t thinking all about myself when I planned to hold an exhibition on scarecrows. I hoped people would see these adorable scarecrows that once existed on our land. With changes going on in our lives, I wonder what will happen to the scarecrows in Taiwan’s farming villages, or if they will disappear entirely.